First, I would like to say that this is a very interesting and thoughtful analysis. Points 5, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 18 are quite thought-provoking.

I would, however, like to point out that communications were shut off completely. On Friday, January 28 we had no mobile phones (calls, sms, BBM, etc), internet, or land lines. Today is the first day I was able to send an sms and internet came back fully on February 3. Currently, though not proven, accounts (on both Fb and Twitter) have cropped up in record numbers supporting the Mubarak regime and harassing those that post against them. Further, the "cyber-protesters," i.e. bloggers against the regime, have been singled out and arrested throughout the protests. Case in point, Wael Abbas. Finally, much of what is going on here was not fueled by the youth (as sad as I am to admit it), or at least not the educated youth that you speak of. Many of the protesters, starting on January 25, found out about the protests through their mosque or word of mouth. This revolution is not just propagated by the youth of Egypt. This revolution is truly one of the people and people of all ages, classes, religions, beliefs and education level are participating.

In light of this information, which I'm not sure if you're aware of or not, we are still in Tahrir and still fighting against the regime. I might even say that the communications blackout made people fight harder."

Paul Mason's At the heart if it all is a new sociological type: the graduate with no future is speculative and fanciful. Uprisings can, and have, happened when least expected, catching out the state with all its layers of repressive machinery. Commentators are invariably two-steps behind and I imagine that Mason would have spent more time listening to the articulate intellectual / middle-class / English speaking layer of activists. Talk of memes and networking media is far more interesting than discussion of bread, rent, daily wage rates, etc.

Why did things 'kick off' across Europe in 1848? Or across Europe and other parts of the world in 1919? Or within many parts of Africa from the mid-1950s onwards? Why Hungary 1956, and not Czechoslovakia or Poland?

Mason's ideas are confused. There'll be a few that you'll agree with because they may sound right but they lack a historical perspective.

Mason's father, btw, was a lorry driver, he's father of the NUJ chapel for Newsnight, and he's spoken on behalf of the Trotskyist organisation Workers Power, of which he was previously a member. He also wrote the music for a play about the miners' strike and a book called Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global.

It's not a taunt, Norman. You criticize Mason for being speculative, fanciful, two steps behind, confused and lacking historical perspective, but the only historical perspective you provide consists of a series of unanswered questions. You offer no alternative ideas yourself (unless you count "bread, rent, daily wage rates, etc."). It's purely negative criticism.

Neil, the same as you, I read the newspapers, online info, etc for the facts of the situation. I've made some comments here (elsewhere) and postings in the hope of generating some discussion. Little response. Fair enough.

I'm not an on-the-spot correspondent gazing from a hotel rooftop, relying on 'insider' briefing and occasionally venturing down to the square with a camera crew before I file copy.

The ideas you say I raise are thoughts about what may possibly be the most pressing things in many people's lives, and perhaps the motivation for their actions in wanting change. People in Egypt who are laying their lives on the line may not know themselves what they want beyond the most immediate and obvious - food, a job, a decent daily wage. I don't say these are ideas, just factors that may have got many people going.

Yes, I do have a lot of questions and many correspondents I've read have offered little to answer them. The news is currently all about the Muslim Brotherhood and its involvement in leadership talks. But exactly how strong that party is, and whether it has a base within the population or a military wing, I just don't know. How much money is Egypt losing on a daily basis through industrial disruption? How much oil is not being shipped through? Will the West intervene militarily to prevent the closure of the strategically important Suez Canal? What will be the impact on Israel's continued occupation of Gaza? How widespread are workers' strikes throughout Egypt?

I agree my criticism of Mason's blog is largely negative. It deserves it. I would like to see more factual analysis rather than speculation. His family and political background is commendable, but neither here nor there. I didn't know of his affiliation with the far left; now I know, I can only say that I would expect better from him.

I can see where Norman's coming from but Mason's focus on the way protests have developed with the use of social media, perhaps even motored and fuelled by them, is the interesting aspect. There was a piece on a similar theme about UK student protests in the LRB a short while back, you probably saw it Norman, I think it is of more than passing interest how the momentum of events is influenced by facebook, twitter, blogs etc rather than the more traditional media.

We’re not there (on the streets of Cairo) so we can’t ask the question....but I’d find it academically interesting to be there, or in one of the other spots, and ask the protestors about memes and see what they say.

I’m old enough to remember how the vanguard of the revolution was identified as young intellectuals – the new Leninist strike force according to one or two 60s theorists. But I’m also old enough to remember going to my old northern town, head full of the apocalypse to come, and having a ridiculous conversation with a load of factory workers in a pub who thought that I, with my Portobello army jacket and a flower in my button hole, looked, in their eyes, nothing more than a right wanker.

But the central problem I have with this piece is in one of its afterwords – that the toolsets that facilitate the memes (here I go wanking again – no doubt I’ll be talking about the memes of production soon) can, actually, be rather well handled by the forces of reaction.

Who, after all, ‘won’ the Internet battle of the last UK Election? Guido Fawkes and his nasty chums, by a mile. Those potty Tea Partiers seem, too, to be well-sussed on Internet possibilities. And don’t forget the Amazing Koch Brothers and their funding of the Climate Denial lobbies, which has led, directly, to a huge growth in the take-up of a denialist position on Global Warming. Who the hell hacked into UEA? No one even asks the question anymore.

There might not be that much difference, unfortunately, between the Me Meism of the neo con arena and the memeisms to which Mason refers.

As regards Mason, note that he says his points are based on "various conversations with academics who study this and also the participants themselves" (the latter presumably refers to the UK).

The Egyptian whose comments I posted above, however, said " a very interesting and thoughtful analysis. Points 5, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 18 are quite thought-provoking". He or she is presumably in a better position to judge the validity of Mason's points than we are, at least as regards Egypt.

After the 20 points, meanwhile, Mason is self-critical enough to point out 'some complications' and to state 'all of the above are generalisations: and have to be read as such'. I agree that he goes much too far in saying that "it's kicking off everywhere", when he's basically trying to link the UK youth protests with Arab popular protests, but overall I think Norman is being too harsh (journalism being the first draft of history, and a very rough one at that).

Pete raises some of the points that I was going to make, including the fact that social media and the Internet can be used by all sorts of groups, from the Tea Party to neo-Nazis.

Social media and the Internet are double-edged, facilitating information-gathering and communication between people on the one hand, but on the other hand enabling bloggers, for example, to be identified by the authorities. But the Egyptian whose comments I posted said that the communications blackout imposed by the authorities made people fight harder (presumably because the withdrawal of the freedom of communication and information-gathering through the channels involved only served to emphasize the repressive nature of the regime).

I've no special knowledge of Egypt, but I do know that demographically speaking, North African countries have a large and growing youth population. On the other hand, the Egyptian commenter says: "much of what is going on here was not fueled by the youth [...], or at least not the educated youth that you speak of. Many of the protesters [...] found out about the protests through their mosque or word of mouth. This revolution is not just propagated by the youth of Egypt. This revolution is truly one of the people and people of all ages, classes, religions, beliefs and education level are participating."

This, however, still leaves the question of who started off the protests in Egypt and why unanswered (I recall that a street-trader set fire to himself in protest at his treatment by the authorities, which may have been a catalyst).

The other big question is to what extent there are commonalities between what's happening in Egypt and the earlier youth protests in the UK. But certainly the example of Tunisia will not have escaped the Egyptians.